Sunday 18 October 2026
A man is shot dead on a crowded Midtown Manhattan subway platform and the gunman is still at large
A man was shot in the chest and killed on the northbound E train platform at Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan at about 12:20 in the afternoon on Saturday, after a dispute involving two or three men, the NYPD said. The victim died at Bellevue Hospital. No arrests have been made, and police say the suspect, last seen in a red tracksuit and black vest, is armed and dangerous, as of October 18.
It happened in the middle of the day, in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan, on a platform full of tourists. At about 12:20 on Saturday afternoon, a dispute on the northbound E train platform at the Seventh Avenue station at 53rd Street, a short walk from Broadway theaters and Carnegie Hall, ended with one man shot in the chest.
Witnesses described two shots, seconds apart, and a platform emptying in panic. Mauricio Marroquin, heading home to Queens after a morning shift, told the New York Post he saw the victim on the ground in a blazer while another man urged him to stay awake. Bystanders began chest compressions before emergency crews arrived. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in cardiac arrest and pronounced dead. Police have not released his name while his family is notified. He was believed to be in his thirties.
Police say the shooting was not random. An NYPD spokesperson said there was nothing random between these two individuals, and Deputy Chief Keith Shine said the victim, the gunman and another person had engaged in some kind of dispute, which at one point spilled onto a train that had pulled into the station and back onto the platform. Whether the men knew each other, and what the argument was about, has not been established. No weapon has been recovered.
The suspect fled on foot and is still at large, as of October 18. Surveillance images show a man in a red tracksuit, a black puffer vest and a dark face covering, carrying a backpack. Police have warned that he is armed and dangerous and have asked anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
The killing lands against two facts that point in opposite directions, and both are true. Citywide homicides in New York are down about 20 percent this year and on pace for the lowest count in decades, CNN reported. Killings inside the transit system have moved the other way: Saturday death brought the transit murder count for the year to seven, against four at the same point last year, the Post reported. For the people on that platform, the second number is the one that describes their afternoon.
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